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Adulting

My career is built around working with undergraduates. Along the way I became a parent myself, twice, and have given a bit of thought to what it means to be an adult.

One of my early summaries, that I think still holds true:  things that used to terrify me have become daily occurrences. I'm an introvert and was much shyer in my youth. I was happy to let others take responsibilities for major life decisions. My decisions did not have serious consequences for others.

Now my days are spent interacting with others. I and no one else is responsible for the life-choices I've made (marriage, career, etc.) and I wouldn't have it any other way. Part of taking on leadership roles is making peace with the fact that others may suffer for my mistakes; the alternative is to let others bear that responsibility so that I can rest more easily.

So adulting, for me at least, has mainly been a change in what I want out of life. Maybe the desire was there all along.


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